I had the great fortune (in my opinion, though I suspect some members of my family may disagree) of being born into a family of stalwart, politically charged movers and shakers.
My grandfather was a Truman man, highly placed within the 1948 campaign infrastructure in Connecticut. He was a contemporary and close associate to John Bailey, the former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Bailey’s daughter, Barbara Kennelly, who later went on to become Congresswoman Kennelly (for whom I worked briefly in her DC office), grew up a similar-aged peer with my father, the two of whom became and remained close personal friends throughout their lives.
My father followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming one of the more influential political powerbrokers in Connecticut, and, to a lesser degree, at the national level. He was a close friend and advisor to numerous “politicos” in recent Connecticut history including former Senators Chris Dodd, Joseph Lieberman, current Senator Richard Blumenthal, former Governors Bill O’Neill and Ella Grasso, and Congressman John Larson among many others.
In 1976 and again in 1980, my father served as a delegate for President Jimmy Carter. In February of 1980 my father was invited to a meeting with President Carter to discuss domestic affairs. He met with him on two occasions including during a presidential visit to Connecticut. For my father, President Carter represented what was right about politics and public service.
To me, politics has always been about public service – despite the lazy, derogatory meanings some people attach to the word “politics” I have always held the pursuit of public office in high regard. It takes a special kind of person to dedicate themselves to the greater good, to things “greater than self”, in a most public way.
When my father passed in 2019, I received this hand-written note from Senator Dodd:
Note from former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd
Senator Blumenthal emailed me to tell me he had read a statement about my father on the floor of the Senate and into the Congressional Record and then sent me the official statement where it now hangs on my office wall. Many years earlier, when I had just started working in community health, Senator Lieberman, at a meeting he held and to which I was an invited guest, referred to me as “political royalty” to the surprise of my health center CEO colleagues at the time.
As a young impressionable child, watching my family participate in the political process, engaging on topical issues of importance, I developed a passion for public service that remains with me to this day. In my own way, without pursuing a political career, I found different ways to contribute to things “greater than me.”
It took me a while, but when I found community health in my 40s, it was like a whole part of me, something buried deep in my DNA, was suddenly awakened. I often tell my clients and candidates alike that community health changed my life for the better. In many ways I found my way home through the “movement.”
One of the more significant moments for me in my community health journey happened when I was only a few weeks into my first position at the health center. A woman accompanied by her two children came to the health center and asked to see me. She told me she stopped by to thank me for saving her husband’s life. Of course, I didn’t fully understand since I am not a medical provider and so I asked her to explain.
She told me that her husband had a serious heart condition and had been on the waiting list for nine months to see the Cardiologist at the local hospital. That is until our health center opened a cardiology clinic on Friday mornings, staffed by the very same Cardiologist her husband was waiting to see. Her husband finally had an opportunity to be seen, and when he came in for his visit, the Cardiologist immediately sent him by ambulance to the hospital. He underwent emergency surgery later that evening. The woman was told that if her husband hadn’t been seen that day he would likely have not lived through the weekend.
So, here she was in my office several weeks later thanking me for saving her husband’s life. That’s the moment I fell in love with community health and truly realized its impact on people’s lives, including my own. The woman who visited with me had no idea she was altering the course of my life at the time, and neither did I. But I am eternally grateful she did.
I love community health and all that it represents. I love the people who work in the industry, the patients we serve, and the elected officials who have supported the mission since its inception in the mid-sixties.
And don’t be fooled into thinking the community health center movement is a “liberal” program. Nothing could be further from the truth. The health center movement saw its greatest period of growth and support under President George W. Bush, and there isn’t a republican member of congress who doesn’t want to support the health centers located in their districts. And they all have at least one in their district.
So now, when I see the assault on healthcare and on voting rights and on the rule of law constructed by the current administration it makes my blood boil. What we are witnessing is not politics. It is cruel political theater under the guise of politics. These are not public policy decisions mandated by popular opinion. These are actions of ignorance, fear, and control. These people and their temporary hold on societal and political norms will eventually disappear from our lives, but in their wake is a deeply damaged nation.
What remains is a call to action.
In every way possible we all must use our voices and our votes to declare ourselves committed to things greater than ourselves. If not a functioning democracy, what else is there? The things that matter most to you, whatever they are, have a future but only within the realm of a functioning democracy and society.
I refuse to accept the end of my love story with community health. Our industry is facing unprecedented challenges with respect to funding and workforce and reimbursement and more. Our patients, our employees, our industry need us now more than ever to embrace our “Long Walk of Freedom.” Through resilience and unwavering resolve, we will ensure the movement continues its journey for another 65 years and more.
I have an enduring belief in the common good and in the power of people to act for things “greater than self.” And that, in my humble opinion, is the true meaning of politics and the greatest act of love we can share. Let’s get to work!
Bottom: My father with astronaut and former U.S. Senator John Glenn